


The New & Improved Ice Bucket Challenge

by justbygrace



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Canon verse, F/M, with AU elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-30
Updated: 2014-11-30
Packaged: 2018-02-27 14:14:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2696012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justbygrace/pseuds/justbygrace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>First sentence provided prompt.<br/>Obligatory 5+1 fic</p>
            </blockquote>





	The New & Improved Ice Bucket Challenge

I

Felicity poured her drink over Oliver's head when they first met. This was not her usual first-time-meeting-someone practice, but he wasn't getting the hint about her disinterest. She was at the bar that night to hang out with a group of friends before they all parted ways to head off to college and Oliver Queen hitting on her didn't figure into her plans for the evening. He was surprisingly okay with his unexpected shower, moving back to his group of friends with a parting wink and Felicity promptly forgot about him.

II

The next time she met him, Felicity was the proud owner of a degree from MIT, top of the Dean's list, graduate with honors, working at the drive-thru window at the local McDonalds. She did her very best not to be bitter, spending her nights sending out resumes to all of the companies she could think of who hired IT techs, but sometimes it was hard. Especially days when Oliver Queen rolled through her window, usually with a car full of drunk people, trying out one lame pick-up line after another. She rolled her eyes, shook her head, and tried to remember he wasn't serious. But then he'd be back and they'd go through the same routine. Eventually she remembered the last trick she'd used to get him to leave her alone and next time he made a bad "slither in" joke, she had a cup of ice water ready and used it much to the amusement of everyone in the car. He drove off still spluttering and before she could worry about the consequences, Starling Enterprises called and McDonalds was a thing of the past.

III

It was six years before she saw him again. In that amount of time he had disappeared and returned and she'd quit Starling and accepted a position at Queen Consolidated running the IT department. She'd mostly forgotten about her earlier run-ins with Oliver and was fairly certain being abandoned on an island meant he had too. At least up until the day he walked into her office carrying a shot up laptop and some BS story about coffee shops that had her rolling her eyes harder than any of his long-ago lines. They quickly fell into a sort of routine wherein he brought her questionable things with questionable stories and she was supposed to just go with it and they both pretended that they'd never seen each other before. It wasn't until he was bleeding in the back seat of her car that a lot more things about him started to make sense and later, while she poured antiseptic solution into his wounds, did she wonder if maybe he really didn't remember her pre-island.

IV

After that she spent a lot of time in the Lair, as she liked to call it, watching Oliver and Dig train with an appreciative eye and, oh yes, running algorithms and generally helping to catch bad guys while searching for Walter. She was absolutely convinced that Oliver didn't remember meeting her before (which actually made sense because she looked a lot different back then) and she was okay with that. Things were pretty normal for awhile, or as normal as they get when one is the sidekick for a masked vigilante whom everyone in the city is equal parts grateful to and terrified of. And then came the Reaping and Tommy's Death and a lot of other capitalized events and Oliver retreated to his island and Felicity and Dig had to go find him. And then, after Felicity parachuted out of a plane for him, Oliver had the audacity to say that he wasn't going back to Starling City. Without stopping to think through her actions, Felicity tipped the water bottle Oliver had tossed her over his head, watching in enjoyment as it splashed down over his head, neck, and shoulders. Oliver looked at her in shock, spluttering like a mad cat, and Dig just stood there with a long-suffering expression on his face. It wasn't until they were on a plane over the ocean that Oliver leaned over and whispered, "I was wondering when you'd pour water on me again" and Felicity said nothing at all until they landed back in Starling City.

V

The second year was even more complicated than the first and Felicity had to stand back and watch Oliver do his level best to self-destruct. She couldn't even be mad at Sara, no one could be stay mad at Sara except maybe Laurel, and so she bit her tongue and confided in Dig on late-night stakeouts and Dig gave great hugs and made her no promises he had no intention of keeping. The thing with Barry was short-lived, but it reminded her that she was a strong independent woman who didn't need no vigilante and she cleared her head of any lingering feelings and worked harder than ever to help Oliver bring down Slade. And then everything went to hell. Later, much later, when she was standing on a beach staring at Oliver, listening to him spit out some more ridiculous lines, she could take no more, scooping up a handful of ocean water and throwing it at him. It didn't do more than splatter his shirt, but he stopped mid-sentence and stared at her as if seeing her for the first time. After that neither of them said much at all.

1

Time continued to pass because time did that and there were ups and downs and ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends and nefarious plans and misunderstandings and frustrations, but one day in the not too far future, the two of them were again standing on an island, but the good kind of island that didn't harbor any psychotic criminals (at least none that they knew of). They were holding hands and the setting sun was glinting off of their rings and Felicity was fairly certain that this was the kind of happiness that movies were based around. And then, without warning, Oliver lifted her up and tossed her into the ocean, diving after her and catching her before she had the chance to retaliate. He wrapped his arms around her waist, kissing her amidst her splutterings, and grinning in his triumph. And Felicity returned his kisses and began planning how to get him back for this. 


End file.
